One of my biggest dreams. Katsucon 2016

This has taken me a long time to confront and get over, lol. Still not fully over it to be honest but I knew I had to inform you lot. Hahaha... where to start. I've planned to visit America and katsucon for quite some time and ended up attending katsucon 2016. I had such a great time meeting so many awesome people. Even though people say it isn't as much of a party con compared to what dragon con is it really felt like a party con to me once it hit night time. The gaylord hotel venue was so cool; there were also gaming / club areas which I've never many videographers / photographers cover before. Regular videographer, photographer attendees should get some content of that too but digress. I filmed like I never filmed before. Worked with many amazing as well as many well known cosplayers I filmed so many people that on the second to third day of the con multiple people kept saying "I remember you, you filmed me yesterday" in simple terms I went HAM, lol but there was only one thing that was a huge issue which troubled me and my peers who I traveled with; flight issues, cancellations and delays really gave us a challenge. The airport losing my good friends luggage on the way to Washington. He was on the phone for the whole night once we got to washington trying to sort it out with the airline he was with. Luckily for him it arrived a day or two after non stop persistancy. My issue came when we finished our stay in Washington; we took a cab to the airport which went incredibly smoothly. Once we got to the airport our flights were cancelled and then changed. Man... it was a mess. In short our changed flight was about 3 plane journies home instead of the 2. When we took the first plane the take off was delayed due to ice on the plane which hadn't been heated off. By the time the plane took off and we arrived at our next state our second plane had taken off. There was nothing we could've done. We told advisors working at Atlanta airport and they arranged another flight which would take us home but it would be the next day in the afternoon. No free accomadation or anything so we slept at the airport. During one of these flights I took out my pouch with my sd cards and looked at how great my footage was. It was the plane to atlanta with delta airlines. There leg room is pretty bad. Tired and exausted from our diversions I left my pouch with my lens and two of my sd cards on the plane. If you know about delta terms about leaving your things on their planes you'll know that you most likely won't be seeing it ever again. If they don't find your belongings on their plane within two weeks they ship it off to a bigger company, sell it and make money off it. They also say anything lost on their airlines has nothing to do with them. I guess this has been a lesson in travelling to the states. Don't take delta and take a lot more cabs from state to state. I still have one of my sd cards so i have 30% of what i actually filmed which is actually a decent amount; it kills me inside that i don't have all i worked hard for but it is what it is, innit! I'll be making a katsucon video slated for june of this year. It will be exclusive to only facebook.

Last minute journey to Birmingham Comic Con 2016

My plan was to miss out Birmingham comic con 2016 this year but as I realized I would be suffering from con blues after lscc for a while (my next con is mcm comic con may)so I franticly bought a train ticket and headed down. On the saturday of the con I totally forgot to even enter the convention as I was filming cosplayers quite a bit outside of the con and close to the forest. The variety of epic settings outside of the convention leaves any creative feeling all fuzzy inside. I did go into the convention on the sunday though. It was ok; the orange tint inside the con did scare many photographers and videographers away though. Speaking of videographers i really enjoyed seeing some new videographers very actively and passionately filming at brumcon; It put a long lasting smile on my face. It was an awesome feeling working with some new people and especially when I found at many knew who I was once I handed them my card. It's a good feeling. One cosplayer said they thought I would be an asian guy, lmao. For this con I was going to use a ballad but realized the fun and adrenaline rush I get from filming cosplayers at conventions doesn't suit mellow and slightly depressing music. I'm more about hype! I think the video game "soulcalibur" played a subconcious part in the epic music i decided to use. I was playing soulcalibur 1 - 5 all over again the weekend before, lol. I'm incredibly proud of how this cosplay music video came out. Hope you lot enjoy!

From Psy to Popcorn Funk - LSCC 2016

London super comic con 2016; it was an interesting one. It was a lot smaller this time around due to 4 other shows running on the same day. Usually lscc takes over the majority of the excel centre but this time around it was pushed to the side which was something many people didn't expect but in the end it was still fun catching up with friends and having a good laugh.

My plan for this LSCC 2016 was to create a dance video with Psy's song "gentlemen" but due to the lack of space the con goers had this time around and the fact that many people didn't "get" the song as much as "gangnam style" i decided to ditch the idea on the day and make a cosplay showcase which is a lot easier and less stressful to make, lol.

I chose the song for it on the sunday of the convention; I usually pick a song 2 weeks prior to a con so this was a pretty new interesting pressure route for me. I think it ended up aright. What say you?

Cat Noir (Miraculous ladybug) - Brace yourselves the cat cosplays are coming this 2016

A new Korean, Japanese, French show called "Miraculous Ladybug is silently but very quickly growing traction and hype; especially the character Cat Noir from the series who is the main protaganists teammate and secret lover. Cat Noir is a superhero who wears black, rubbery spandex with a golden bell just above his chest, an untied belt around his waist and is equipped with night vision, a staff and a power ring which enables him to transform as well as use his special attack "cataclysm" which turns his hand into a deadly weapon; destroying anything he touches however it limits his transfomation duration when used.

Enough about the technical stuff. I've been seeing a lot of posts about people wondering who this "sexy character" is and many are planning to cosplay him after immediate first glance. I found an awesome person cosplaying him at Birmingham comic con last month. Although she says she has yet to finish the cosplay I still think its a rather good cosplay of Cat Noir.

At the time I saw the Cat Noir cosplay in Birmingham I knew slightly about the show. I read a post from cristina vee confirming she'd the voice actress for the main character so I had to have a look at it then watched the trailer but that was all. After the convention I realized people began posting "who is this cool, sexy character" with a link to the intro of the show and it's gaining traction. I Just watched the first episode today and it's actually a pretty good show. Definitley going to watch some more to gain some creative ideas from it for 2016.

 

It's inevitable. Get ready lad and ladettes for the Cat Noir wave this 2016

Birmingham MCM Comic Con November 2015 - A chilled out con

So I decided to take a trip back to Birmingham for mcm comic con. While it isn't as big as it's london counterpart it's awesome for chilling out and overall is a lot less chaotic. The convention also only goes on for 2 days. My guess is because it doesn't bring in as much people as the major london one. I arrived to the convention an hour early on saturday after staying at a friends house who lives nearby, with my headphones on listening to my pre arranged music I was totally ready to film some cosplays.

The inside area was one huge hall. It actually worked pretty well and it was very simple to get where you wanted to without hassle. I'm beginning to prefer smaller cons like birmingham comic con as opposed to larger ones.
Why you say?
It's a lot less chaotic, stress free and feels like a place where you are meant to chill out and have fun.
For cosplay videography i prefer smaller cons because it gives you time to think and showcase cosplayers work a lot better rather than trying to fit everyone who you filmed in a video you can elongate the amount of time each cosplayer is shown in a video and thus have a more peaceful, fun time editing the video.

Overall I actually really enjoyed birmingham mcm last weekend. It was well organized, hassle free and had a really chilled out atmosphere. It was blood freezing up north though!

Anyways here's what I created from the weekend:

MCM Comic Con Expo London October 2015 - My longest ever cosplay music video Skrillex, Touhou wub wub

My plan for mcm comic con (October) was way too huge to comprehend and fully get done. I wanted to do a side video as well as a cosplay music video but that's another story. The rain which trolled nearly the whole of saturday and the unexpected rise of wall maria pretty much thrwarted my vision so i just made a cosplay vid.

What i did with this one though was slightly different. I saw a CMV a while back in which the cosplay videographer added theirself into the beginning of the video greeting friends. The videographer Lucy a.k.a "Twisted Manga" did it in a way that didn't annoy or distract the viewer though who wants to see cosplay and not the person who envisions a CMV trying to promote their face obsessivley. It was more of a natural intro which in turn got you ready for the inevitable cosplay which was showcased afterwards.

Here's hers: Skrillex - Rock N Roll Cosplay Video AACC 2015



Here's my take: Mcm comic con expo london october 2015 cosplay music video skrillex



I wanted to add many more friends in the intro but some scenes came out a bit funny plus I had to juggle showcase scenes. If you've seen me at a convention or no me I usually say at a convention "I don't have enough footage" when in fact I most likely do. I guess It's a way of programming myself to make sure I get more than enough footage for when I import everything into the editing suite.

As you can see I immitated a couple of scenes and angles which i liked from Twisted Mangas video. It's my longest ever cosplay video to date, yay! I think I made a decent vid amongst the music copyright issues for the second part of the video which led me to re edit and upload the vid. The second song was meant to be for gamescom next year but I had to find a song asap for the second half of the video due to the copyright issue which muted the original track once I uploaded it. The second track which you hear in the video had similar bpm to the original track i used so I got lucky, haha. I know for sure my end product could've been a lot better and im very analytical towards my vids but I'm glad I visibly see the faults in my video so that I can improved them for the next video. It's always a great learning curve. Note to self don't use don't use house music for cosplay music video's. There's a reason you don't hear them often in CMV's. Jokes aside I'll research a tracks policies before I get excited and use it.

MCM Comic Con London October 2015 - Wall Maria

Mcm expo comic con. The biggest pop culture event in the UK; especially the london mcm. This October's event in London was interesting to say the least. Fences were put around the venue to prevent people without tickets from entering the event as well as to stop loiterers. Luckily for me I managed to obtain a ticket last minute.

What I can say is that it did reduce loitering dramaticly but not people entering the site without a ticket. Towards midday and the afternoon ticketless people were free to venture around the area.

My main problem with mcm is that they don't give anyone attending notices on how the event will be set up at all. You usually find out through word of mouth a prior to the event day from people have went to the area of the site

I wonder how next years setup will be. One can only guess.